Tip of the Week: Don't compare your weight or appearance on a day-to-day basis. It's a surefire way to get discouraged and lose sight of your long-term goals: to get healthy and fit, and to stay that way.

I've seen and heard far too many people lamenting how they woke up one morning looking fatter than they did yesterday, or how they gained a pound over the last day and are miserable about it. What they and you need to know is that the body is fluid and ever-changing. Just as some days are better than others at our jobs and at home, so too does our body have its "up" days and its "down" days.

It's OK, though. What's most important is not how we look or feel today as compared to yesterday, but how our bodies serve us, and how we serve them, over the long haul. If, over the course of a month, we lose 5 pounds and we manage to keep it off the following month while increasing muscle tone, then we've got something worth talking about. A day, or even a week, doesn't constitute enough time to accurately gauge progress or a failing. In other words, give it time.

Q: Is it better to exercise at morning or at night, or maybe even during the middle of the day?

A: Ask this question of 100 different people, and you'll probably get 100 different answers as to when exactly the best time is to train. Personally speaking, I like an early morning workout. Exercising is a great way to get the day started. It sets the tone for the rest of the day and gives me the energy I need to tackle all of the little problems that crop up along the way.

Of course, for many, training in the morning is either impractical or undesirable. I know a number of night owls who prefer going to the gym after work and even after dinner. They say a workout is a great way to decompress after a long and sometimes stressful day.

Certainly your strength levels are higher earlier in the day, before your daily responsibilities begin to eat into your energy stores. This is why I recommend morning training first and foremost. All of us have an internal clock that is calibrated quite specifically, however. More important than you taking my advice on this matter is for you to listen to your own body and let it tell you when it wants to train. If you listen closely, you should hear it talking.

Of course, if your ideal training time conflicts with your life's schedule, then you'll have to figure a next best option. More important than when you train, however, is how you train and with what amount of intensity.

Q: Are you a proponent of the "push-pull" method of structuring a workout? It seems to make sense to me.

A: I am, actually. Bodybuilders have been following a push-pull system of training for many decades, and the results are undeniable. I highly recommend it for anyone, be it an advanced or beginning bodybuilder.

For the uninitiated, a push-pull system is one in which you break the body up into push days and pull days. A push day would be one during which you employ pushing exercises, like the bench press, military press and leg press. A pull day is one in which you are pulling against resistance, be it pull-downs, curls or rows.

Typically, pushing muscles are chest, shoulders, triceps and quads, while pulling muscles are back, biceps and hamstrings. The advantage to pairing up pushing muscles and then pulling muscles is that you can effectively fatigue complimentary body parts, such as chest and triceps. Because each is worked to a degree when the other is trained, you are assured of maximally working both when you train them together.

Below I've outlined typical push-pull combinations for you to consider. Overall, you can't go wrong pairing up any muscles in each of the two categories. As for thighs, don't worry about pairing up by push or pull. Because they are a body part unto themselves, you can train these antagonistic muscle groups together.

PUSH BODYPARTS —— PULL BODYPARTS

Chest —— Back

Shoulders —— Biceps

Triceps —— Leg Biceps (Hamstrings) Quads

PUSH COMBINATIONS

Chest-Shoulders

Chest-Triceps

Shoulders-Triceps

Chest-Shoulders-Triceps

PULL COMBINATIONS

Back-Biceps

Joe Weider is acclaimed as "the father of modern bodybuilding" and the founder of the world's leading fitness magazines, including Shape, Muscle and Fitness, Men's Fitness, Fit Pregnancy, Hers, Golf for Seniors and others published worldwide in over 20 languages.To find out more about Joe Weider, write to him and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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